Women in Cannabis: Marketing to Women, By Women with Nurit Raphael and Jamie Evans

Key Insights

• - Women cannabis consumers are disproportionately motivated by wellness, stress relief, and sleep improvement use cases compared to general cannabis consumer populations, making wellness-positioned cannabis brands and products particularly well-suited to the female cannabis consumer growth opportunity, and requiring dispensaries to develop the staff knowledge and product curation that serves wellness-motivated consumers.
• - Cannabis marketing that uses hypersexualized imagery, stoner culture references, or counter-culture cannabis aesthetics as default positioning actively alienates many women cannabis consumers, particularly the wellness-oriented and professional demographics that represent the strongest growth in women's cannabis consumption, making inclusive and sophisticated brand aesthetics not just a diversity consideration but a commercial growth strategy.
• - Women are more likely than men to make cannabis purchase decisions based on staff recommendation and trust, making the quality of the dispensary floor experience, the knowledge and approachability of budtenders, and the dispensary environment's comfort and inclusivity more commercially important for capturing women's cannabis purchasing than for the male consumer segments that may navigate the purchase with more existing product knowledge.
• - Women cannabis entrepreneurs including Nurit Raphael and Jamie Evans have built brands specifically designed to serve women consumers with the authentic voice, lifestyle alignment, and product design that general-market cannabis brands typically miss, demonstrating that niche positioning for an underserved consumer segment can create sustainable competitive advantage in a market where most brands are competing for the same broad audience.
• - Inclusive cannabis marketing is not just about adding women to imagery but about fundamentally rethinking the brand positioning, product development, channel strategy, and communication tone to reflect the values, aesthetics, and lifestyle contexts of the female cannabis consumer rather than adapting primarily male-coded cannabis culture to add female visual elements.

Expert Answers

[{How should cannabis brands market to women consumers?}

Cannabis brands should market to women consumers by first understanding the specific use cases, motivations, and lifestyle contexts that drive women's cannabis consumption rather than assuming the female cannabis consumer is simply a demographic variant of the general cannabis consumer. Research consistently shows that women cannabis consumers over-index on wellness, stress management, sleep improvement, and pain relief use cases, making wellness-oriented brand positioning and product formulations more resonant with female consumers than recreational party or counter-culture positioning. The communication tone should be adult, sophisticated, and respectful rather than girlish or condescending, the visual aesthetic should reflect the full range of women who use cannabis rather than defaulting to narrow beauty standards, and the marketing channels should include the wellness and lifestyle platforms where women are most engaged rather than only the cannabis-specific platforms where male consumer demographics typically dominate.

{Why are women an important cannabis consumer segment?}

Women are an important cannabis consumer segment because they represent a large and rapidly growing portion of legal cannabis consumers, with women's cannabis consumption growing faster than the general market as legalization normalizes and the wellness positioning of cannabis aligns with the health and self-care interests that drive women's consumer behavior in adjacent categories. Women also have significant purchasing influence beyond their personal cannabis consumption, including purchasing cannabis for partners, as gifts, and as wellness products recommended to friends and family members, amplifying their economic importance to the cannabis market beyond their direct purchase volume. Cannabis businesses that develop genuine capability to serve female consumers well are positioned to capture a disproportionate share of this growing consumer segment compared to competitors whose brand and floor experience remain primarily designed for male consumers.

{Who are Nurit Raphael and Jamie Evans and what do they do in cannabis?}

Nurit Raphael is a cannabis entrepreneur and brand builder focused on the women's cannabis market, bringing expertise in building cannabis brands that speak authentically to female consumers with the product design, brand aesthetic, and marketing voice that general-market cannabis brands typically do not offer. Jamie Evans is a cannabis author and lifestyle expert known as The Herb Somm, whose work focuses on elevating cannabis consumption culture and making cannabis accessible and appealing to sophisticated adult consumers including the wellness-oriented women's market segment. Both Nurit and Jamie bring genuine lived experience as women in the cannabis industry who have built their careers around serving the underserved female cannabis consumer audience, making their perspective on marketing to women in cannabis both strategically informed and authentically grounded.

{What cannabis products are most popular with women consumers?}

Cannabis products that are most popular with women consumers tend to reflect the wellness, stress relief, and lifestyle use cases that characterize women's cannabis consumption patterns. Edibles including gummies and chocolates are popular because the inhalation-free format and precise dosing align with women's over-indexing interest in controlled, predictable cannabis experiences. Topicals including lotions, balms, and bath products are popular because they serve the body care and pain relief use cases that resonate with female consumer wellness motivations. Low-dose and micro-dose products that enable functional cannabis use without significant psychoactivity align with women's frequent interest in using cannabis for focus, relaxation, and sleep without impairment. Premium flower and vape products also serve women consumers, particularly in the sophisticated lifestyle positioning that appeals to female consumers who want cannabis to fit into an elevated adult lifestyle rather than being associated with counter-culture consumption.]

Webinar Highlights

00:00 - The Women's Cannabis Consumer Opportunity and Why Most Brands Are Missing It

The session opens by establishing the size and growth trajectory of the women's cannabis consumer segment and why most cannabis brands and dispensaries have not developed the brand voice, product positioning, or floor experience that effectively serves female consumers, creating a significant untapped opportunity for operators who invest in genuinely inclusive cannabis marketing.

08:00 - What Motivates Women's Cannabis Consumption and How It Differs from General Patterns

This section covers the specific use case and lifestyle motivations that characterize women's cannabis consumption, including the wellness, stress relief, and sleep improvement drivers that dominate female consumer cannabis interest, and how understanding these motivations changes the product positioning, staff guidance, and marketing messaging that resonates with women cannabis consumers.

18:00 - Building Cannabis Brand Voice and Aesthetic That Resonates with Women

The webinar covers the brand voice, visual identity, and positioning approaches that connect with female cannabis consumers authentically, including the aesthetic approaches that signal sophistication and inclusion, the communication tone that respects adult female intelligence without being condescending, and the brand positioning mistakes that actively alienate women consumers.

26:00 - Nurit Raphael and Jamie Evans: Building Cannabis Brands for Women, By Women

This section features Nurit Raphael and Jamie Evans discussing their respective approaches to building cannabis brands and careers in the women's cannabis space, including what they have learned about what female cannabis consumers actually want, how their personal experiences as women in the cannabis industry inform their brand and marketing decisions, and what advice they have for cannabis operators who want to serve female consumers better.

34:00 - Marketing Channels and Content Formats That Reach Women Cannabis Consumers

The session closes with the marketing channel and content strategy for reaching women cannabis consumers, covering which platforms and formats attract female cannabis audiences most effectively, how wellness and lifestyle channels provide access to women cannabis consumers that cannabis-specific media channels do not, and how to develop the content themes and creative approaches that make cannabis feel relevant and appealing to the women's wellness and lifestyle audience.

Frequently Asked Questions

[ {What percentage of cannabis consumers are women?}

The percentage of cannabis consumers who are women varies by market maturity and the specific product category, but across legal cannabis markets women typically represent between 35 and 45 percent of cannabis consumers with this share growing as legalization normalizes and cannabis wellness positioning expands the female consumer base. In wellness-oriented product categories including edibles, topicals, and low-dose products, women's share of consumers is often higher than in the overall cannabis market. The growth rate of women's cannabis consumption has consistently outpaced the overall market growth rate in mature legal markets, indicating that the women's cannabis consumer segment will continue to increase as a share of the total legal cannabis consumer population.

{How do dispensaries create a more welcoming environment for women?}

Dispensaries create a more welcoming environment for women through a combination of physical environment, staff culture, and product curation decisions that signal inclusivity and comfort for the full range of cannabis consumers. Physical environment considerations include clean, well-lit, and professionally designed retail spaces that avoid the stereotypical smoke shop aesthetic that can feel uninviting to women new to cannabis retail; comfortable consultation areas where private conversations about product selection are possible; and visual merchandising that reflects diverse cannabis consumer imagery rather than defaulting to male-coded cannabis culture. Staff culture considerations include training budtenders to approach all customers, including women, with genuine curiosity about their needs rather than assumptions about their product knowledge; creating welcoming opening questions that invite consumers to share their goals rather than assuming product preference; and ensuring that the dispensary's team reflects the diversity of its customer base.

{What wellness cannabis products should dispensaries stock for women consumers?}

Dispensaries building product selection for women wellness consumers should prioritize categories and specific products that align with the use cases driving women's cannabis interest. CBD and low-THC products that offer functional wellness benefits without significant psychoactivity serve the female consumer segment interested in cannabis wellness without recreational impairment. Sleep-specific cannabis formulations including products designed for evening use with indica-leaning terpene profiles or sleep-supporting cannabinoid combinations address the sleep improvement motivation that is particularly prominent among women cannabis consumers. Topicals including pain-relieving balms, relaxation-oriented bath products, and skincare-adjacent cannabis products serve the body care and pain relief use cases that resonate strongly with female wellness consumers. Precisely dosed edibles in small serving sizes that enable portion control align with women's over-indexing preference for predictable, manageable cannabis experiences. ]